.:final warning
For serious now...if you have somehow managed to find this site, please know that it contains spoilers. If you are planning on using the Dawn of Defiance campaign then don't read it. That's not sporting. Also know that we are actively trying to avoid running into spoilers on our own. So if you don't want to know, don't read. If you have already played, don't spoil it for us. Our own "Don't ask don't tell" policy if you will. Obviously the game itself is copyright Wizards of the Coast as is the campaign and they have all of their rights and stuff. I'm just documenting our experience playing.
.: updates
Sunday, June 22, 2008 12PM, Amanda & Scott's abode:
Dawn of Defiance - Episode I: The Traitor's Gambit
Fuf, Fosek, Jalen, Krusos, and Aayla were gathered at a table on the Promenade of Sel Zonn station, orbiting the planet of Brentaal. They were waiting for Maya, who was going to give them the details of a job she needed them to do. Maya was late, and while waiting for her, the group was harassed by a patrol of stormtroopers. Not wanting any trouble, Fosek deftly persuaded them to leave them alone. But not long after the stormtroopers had left, the group noticed that there were 2 suspicious men in the crowd who seemed to be looking for something or someone. They had poorly concealed hold-out blasters, and Krusos noticed that they were whispering into hidden comlinks.
Then Maya stumbled into the Promenade, obviously suffering from a severe injury. As soon as she entered, the 2 men drew their weapons and advanced. Krusos sprang into action, vaulted the nearby railing, and dropped down onto the same level as Maya and the 2 undercover agents. Jalen followed him over the railing, but it took him a while to get his lightsaber drawn, since it was inconveniently located in his satchel. Fuf jumped the railing too, but landed hard, causing some bumps and bruises. Aayla drew her sporting blaster pistol and headed for one of the sets of stairs. Fosek drew his heavy blaster pistol and took cover behind a nearby table. Fuf then rushed to Maya's side to examine her wounds and provide some quick first aid.
Just as everyone was getting into position to take out the 2 agents, 3 stormtroopers came rushing in. Krusos knocked out one of the agents with a melee attack, and after a few volleys of blaster fire, the other agent went down too. Jalen killed one of the stormtroopers with his lightsaber, and the combined attacks from Fosek, Aayla, Fuf, and Jalen took out the other two. The group gathered around Maya, while Krusos dragged the unconscious agent over. Fuf revived him, and Fosek conducted a quick interrogation to find out that the Imperials were after Maya.
The group quickly left the scene and went to Maya's safehouse. While there, Fuf performed surgery, with some difficulty, on Maya in order to stabilize her. During that time, Fosek went out and gathered what rumors he could and determined that the Imperials were now looking for them too, although they apparently didn't have the best descriptions of the group to go by. Krusos and Aayla gathered the group's remaining possessions, in preparation for their upcoming job.
Once everyone was ready, Maya told the group that she needed them to retrieve some sensitive cargo for her, but that she didn't know where or what the cargo was. A local information broker, a droid named Switch, had that information and Maya told the group how to find him. Maya told the group to comm her once they had the cargo, and she would get a ship to them within 1 minute.
The group found their way to section V14, which turned out to be a rather run-down area of the station. Fosek convinced a couple of Gamorrean guards that the group needed to see Switch, and the group was allowed inside. Switch had a few thugs and a Twi'lek majordomo nearby. Switch cordially greeted the group, and after discovering that they wanted Maya's cargo, he told them it was in the Imperial docking bay on Blue Deck (for a fee of 1000 credits). As the negotiations came to a close, blaster fire was heard outside, accompanied by the squeal of dying Gamorreans. The door opened, and a large Chevin named Ganga-Lor announced that he was slagging Switch for encroaching on his territory. Mistaking the PC's for friends of Switch, Ganga-Lor told his thugs to open fire on everyone. Everyone drew their weapons and returned fire. Switch hid behind a nearby crate, and Fosek and Aayla likewise found cover while they fired at Ganga-Lor. Jalen rushed the enemy, hoping to pin them outside the room, thereby limiting the number that could enter the room and attack his allies. Ganga-Lor's thugs concentrated mainly on Jalen, but they had trouble hitting him because he was in such close melee with them. Switch's thugs fired at the intruders, but never hit anything. With the PC's focusing on Ganga-Lor, he was hit several times but remained standing. Finally, he retreated back a bit, and called out an apparently pre-arranged signal to Switch's thugs. Switch's thugs immediately switched sides, causing the group to be surrounded by enemies. One of the thugs tried to shoot Fosek in the back, but luckily his shot went wide. The Twi'lek majordomo shot Switch, incapacitating him. Krusos switched to his vibroaxe, and hacked up one of the traitorous thugs. Aayla killed another of the traitors, and Fosek killed the third. Fuf turned around and dropped the majordomo. All in all, the group foiled the attempted ambush very quickly. Meanwhile, Jalen was slowly taking out Ganga-Lor's thugs. Jalen was holding his own, but he had to deflect a couple blaster bolts that would have otherwise hit him. He also had to resort to using the Force to absorb one of the blaster bolts that he was unable to deflect. Krusos then rushed to Jalen's aid, and with the rest of the group able to now focus on the original threat, Ganga-Lor and his thugs were soon dispatched. The group had sustained a few blaster wounds, but Fuf soon remedied everyone's injuries. She and Switch's R5 astromech droid then repaired Switch. The grateful Switch then agreed to show the group a secret way into the Imperial docking bay via the ventilation system.
The group entered the ventilation system, and crawled their way to the Imperial docking bay, but found themselves 20 feet off the ground along the eastern wall. Jalen clumsily opened the ventilation grate, and was seen by two of the four stormtroopers in the bay. They opened fire, and one of them hit him. Without his lightsaber at the ready, Jalen was forced to absorb the blaster bolt using the Force. He quickly dropped down from the vent and took cover behind nearby crates. Krusos came next, pushing the grate out ahead of him. He landed pretty hard, but only suffered a minor injury. He rolled out of the way, and Aayla dropped down next. She landed gracefully, and moved away to let Fuf come down. Fuf also landed nimbly and took cover. Fosek dropped down last. He came down hard, but used a bit of acrobatics to lessen the injury. The group had all made it into the bay, but an Imperial officer had been shouting orders to his unit, and his leadership would likely aid the stormtroopers in the coming fight.
We had to end there, but we'll resume next time with blasters blazing...
Sunday, July 6, 2008 Amanda and Scott's
Dawn of Defiance - Episode I: The Traitor's Gambit (continued)
The group quickly drew their weapons and attacked the stormtroopers. The stormtroopers returned fire, and the officer set off an alarm. But the main threat turned out to be a repulsor sled with heavy weapons. The repulsor sled quickly crossed the bay, and used autofire area attacks against Aayla, Krusos, and Fosek. Fortunately, the repulsor sled pilot turned out to be a poor marksman, and missed every time. The ranged attackers focused on the repulsor sled, killing its pilot. Jalen went around the other side of the crates and killed one of the other stormtroopers. With the repulsor sled unmanned, Fosek took the opportunity to take control of it and unleash its weapons on the Imperials. Unfortunately, the Bothan's lack of proficiency with vehicle/heavy weapons forced him to miss his shots. But with the repulsor sled out of Imperial control, the group steadily took down the stormtroopers one at a time, until only the officer was left. He hid behind a crate for cover, but this only prolonged the inevitable. The officer was soon killed.
Once the immediate threat was over, the group quickly split up to try to accomplish several tasks as quickly as possible. Fuf looked for a computer terminal while Fosek, Jalen, Krusos, and Aayla began searching the bay for the mysterious cargo they were sent to retrieve. Unfortunately, the group now realized that they had never asked Switch what the cargo actually was. And being an information broker, he did not offer that information freely. So the group had to make their best guess as to which piece of cargo they needed. The only item that seemed out of place was a person frozen in carbonite. The group decided that the odds were good enough to just take it and go. So they called Maya for pick up, and prepared to wait the minute it would take for their ride to show up. In the meantime, Krusos acquired the Corellian ale that Switch asked them to deliver to Alderaan for him. Fosek examined the person in carbonite more closely, trying to gain as much information about it as possible. Jalen set himself at the main door, in case reinforcements came. Aayla searched the officer and found a code cylinder, which she gave to Fuf. Fuf used it on a computer terminal to turn off the alarms, and attempted to send an "all clear" message to the powers-that-be. It turned out to not be enough to prevent 6 more stormtroopers from coming to investigate the alarm.
Another firefight ensued, and even though Jalen was at the door ready for the attack, he couldn't seem to hit anything. The rest of the group got behind cover, and maneuvered into position to be able to hit the newcomers. Krusos jumped onto the repulsor sled, and attempted to ram one of the troops. He missed, but he was able to hit a couple stormtroopers with the sled's heavy weapons. The Zabrak decided that he just wasn't skilled enough with the heavy weapons to consistently hit his targets, so he switched to using his own blaster pistol. The group took down all of the stormtroopers, but not before Aayla and Fosek were hit. In fact, the Twi'lek had only a few hitpoints remaining, and the Bothan took such a heavy hit he could have died, but he subconsciously put his trust in the Force, and at the last instant moved just enough that the shot merely knocked him out instead.
With the reinforcements eliminated, Fuf revived Fosek, and everyone grabbed what they could off of the dead stormtroopers. Moments later, the Banshee flew in and landed in the bay. The group scrambled onto the ship, which promptly blasted off and entered hyperspace. They were safe.
Maya introduced the group to "Dodge" O'Keefe and his co-pilot Crash. Dodge seemed pretty pleased with himself for so skillfully getting in and out of the Imperial bay without incident. The group took advantage of the time in hyperspace to recuperate. They reflected on their experiences and realized they were now able do things they hadn't been able to do before (i.e., they leveled up).
********GM Note********
Fuf took another level of Soldier, and took Precise Shot as her feat, allowing her to fire into a melee without penalty.
Fosek took another level of Scoundrel, and took Quick Draw as his feat, allowing him to draw a weapon with a swift action rather than a move action.
Aayla took another level of Scout, and took Skill Focus (Perception) as her feat, granting her a total of +12 on her Perception checks.
Krusos took another level of Soldier, and took Weapon Proficiency (Advanced Melee Weapons) as his feat, allowing him to skillfully use vibro weapons.
Jalen took another level of Jedi, and took Skill Focus (Use the Force) as his feat, granting him a total of +14 on his Use the Force checks.
***********************
The Banshee landed at the Royal Palace on Alderaan, and the group was met by Senator Bail Organa. He thanked them for their assistance, and told them that he was going to entrust them with another mission. In recent months, an Imperial admiral had been providing sensitive information to Organa, but this flow of information stopped two weeks ago. Organa feared that the admiral had been captured, and his fears turned out to be correct, based on information provided by the agent who had been frozen in carbonite. (The group let out a collective sigh of relief upon discovering that their guess about the cargo had been correct.) Organa asked the group to infiltrate a prison facility on Felucia, find out what happened to Admiral Varth, and rescue him if they could. After the potential disaster of not asking Switch the right questions, the group made sure to ask as many questions as they could think of while they still had direct access to Organa. Fosek asked most of the questions, and the group discovered that they would each be getting 3000 credits upon completion of the job, and they got a picture of Varth so that they would know him when they saw him. They also found out that the prison facility relied on secrecy, rather than firepower, for its protection. With this information in hand, the group took leave of the senator to go do some shopping.
Mostly small items were purchased, along with licenses for the weapons that the group had picked up along the way. Fosek also purchased a sensor pack and a repulsor stretcher to carry it on, with the intention of using it to get a better idea of what was inside the prison facility before going in.
Their shopping completed, the group found Dodge and told him they were ready to go. Dodge said he had been considering how to proceed, and offered the plan of dropping to the surface of Felucia, then skimming the surface and landing a day's march away from the facility. This would allow the Banshee to stay out of range of any defenses the facility might have, and would allow the group to approach the facility more discreetly. The group agreed, with the modification that they be dropped off a half day's march away instead.
Hyperspace was uneventful, and Dodge executed his plan without incident. Upon landing, Dodge found that spores in the atmosphere disrupted sensors and communications, and that it would take powerful communications equipment about a minute of re-calibration in order to be able to get through. Hand held comlinks would be useless. He gave the group plenty of food and water, and the group left.
The group was very fortunate to have Aayla with them. Her survival skills led them through the fungal swamps with only one near incident with a razor mushroom, but even then no harm was done. Without Aayla, the group might have wandered for days. As it was, it took about 8 hours of tromping through the jungles and swamps, and then the group was suddenly attacked by several Felucian natives wielding melee weapons fashioned out of some kind of bone.
The group all handled the natives fairly easily, except for Jalen, whose accuracy still seemed to be an issue. He managed to hit one of the Felucians, but did not kill him. In the meantime, the Jedi's opponent hit him almost every round, dropping Jalen to only a few remaining hitpoints. By that point, the rest of the group had finished off the other natives, and were trying to help Jalen with his opponent. A remark was aptly made that there must have been an Area of Ineptitude surrounding the Jedi, because nobody else was able to hit Jalen's opponent either. Finally, Jalen was able to hit the final native a second time to bring him down. Jalen would have cheered, had he not been on the verge of unconsciousness.
Moments after the fight ended, a man with scraggly hair came riding onto the scene atop a kybuck. He introduced himself as Vazus Mandrake, and said the fight was a big misunderstanding - the Felucians had trouble discerning outsiders. He invited the group to the Felucian's village nearby. The group accepted, and as they entered the village, Vazus dismounted and left his kybuck with several others in a small pen.
Vazus asked the group who they were, and what they were doing there. Unsure of Vazus' own allegiances, Fosek attempted a far-fetched story about being on a scenic tour and that their tour guide listed the prison facility as a point of interest (Han would have been proud). Vazus didn't buy the story, and repeated his inquiry. Seeing that deception probably wasn't going to work, Fosek switched tactics, and changed the subject. He asked Vazus who HE was, and what HE was doing here. Fosek was very persuasive in his line of questioning, so Vazus was very forthcoming about the fact that he was doing mercenary work for the Separatists during the Clone Wars. He was gravely wounded and the rest of his team was killed. He chose to live among the Felucians, and seemed quite happy with his new life. Seeing that Vazus had no Imperial ties, Fosek opted to come clean and told him that they were headed to the prison facility to infiltrate it and take something from it. Vazus immediately perked up, and asked the group to complete some sabotage that he had been planning for some time, but that Vazus himself felt he could not accomplish on his own. He gave the group a large explosive, and told them to plant it in the facility's communication center. He said there were enough power sources there to blow up the entire facility. In exchange, he would let them use his kybucks for the remainder of their journey to the facility. The group readily agreed, and hoped that the destruction of the facility would help cover their escape.
The villager's chief then arrived, and asked about the group's intentions. When he learned that the group intended to destroy the facility, he was quite pleased, and offered to send a Felucian scout with the group, to guide them to the facility. This offer was eagerly accepted. While heading to a vacant hut to recuperate, the group heard the anguished cries of sick Felucian children. Upon investigation, they found that the children had some kind of sickness that had been infecting some of the villagers for a few weeks now. The Felucians had no cure for the disease, and its victims ultimately withered and died. Fuf treated the children, and managed to cure them. The chief and the rest of the villagers were very pleased indeed.
The group spent the night in the village, in preparation of the final leg of their journey to the facility. But shortly after waking up, they heard the whine of a repulsor engine, and saw an Imperial scout trooper fly away. Vazus was very alarmed at the idea of the scout reporting the village's location, and the group did not want the Imperials to have advanced warning of their presence. So at Vazus' suggestion, they each rode a kybuck and gave chase. The kybucks were exceptionally fast, and when skillfully ridden, could actually gain on the fleeing speeder.
Aayla proved to be the most capable rider. The Twi'lek and her kybuck seemed to work very well together, and she consistently avoided all obstacles, and gained on the scout. Krusos also did well, and gave chase without incident. Fuf was almost as good, but took a glancing blow by a Felucian rancor at one point. Fosek and Jalen did not fare as well. Jalen got lost early on in the chase, and had to spend precious time getting back on track. Fosek never got lost, but while trying to ride through the hollow trunk of a tree, he ran into the tangled roots and fell off his kybuck. By the time he got mounted again, Jalen had caught up to him.
Aayla, Krusos, and Fuf suddenly found themselves at a small Imperial communications outpost. They faced 2 scout troopers on speeder bikes, and 4 stormtroopers that they could see. The Imperials opened fire, and killed all three kybucks. No longer mounted, the three heroes drew their weapons and returned fire. A round later, Fosek and Jalen entered the area, and joined the fight. One of the scout troopers was killed, leaving his speeder bike unattended. Fosek's kybuck was killed too, so he advanced as quickly as he could through the difficult terrain towards the vacant speeder bike. Fuf took a couple of hits, the second being so powerful that she would have died, but she used a Force point and was merely knocked her out instead. Luckily, she fell onto her back, and her large backpack was bulky enough to keep her face out of the shallow water so she could still breathe. Jalen's kybuck was still alive, so he advanced toward the Imperials, hoping to draw their fire. The second scout trooper was also killed, but the group was still taking fire from all of the remaining ground troops.
We had to end there, but we'll continue the fight next time…
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